Welcome
Welcome to Jordyn Nelson’s digital SOAC portfolio. This portfolio was designed and compiled as part of a Capstone class that serves as the culmination of a student’s undergraduate studies at Pacific Lutheran University. Jordyn Nelson is a senior public relations and advertising major within PLU's Communication Department.

Introducing the Portfolio
Coming into capstone class this semester, I was given the option of completing either a research-based project or self-assessment based portfolio of my PLU experience to demonstrate mastery of the School of Arts and Communication’s five Integrated Learning Objectives and the PLU mission statement. I chose the latter route and decided to compile a digital portfolio. Having made this decision, my first task was finding the metaphor that best describes my time at PLU. After giving it some thought, I realized that my time at PLU has been spent putting together a puzzle without the benefit of having a picture on the box. I didn’t know what the final product of my education experience was going to look like, and it came with no instruction.

To piece together my puzzle, I needed to gain competence in the SOAC ILOs and the PLU mission statement. Developing the skills and abilities reflected in the ILOs and the mission statement enabled me to contemplate the relationships between the individual puzzle pieces, to value the information I can gather from the images on each individual puzzle piece, to express my ideas about the solution to my puzzle effectively, to work with and lead others in the process of piecing my puzzle together, and to recognize varying methods and techniques for solving my puzzle. Now that I have gained competence in these areas, I am able to combine these abilities and fit the pieces of my puzzle into place.

Completing this self-assessment required me to reflect on the experiences I have had during my time at PLU. It has provided me with an opportunity to look back on my college career and reflect on where I started, and how far I have progressed. To start this process, I gathered artifacts from classes I have taken here at PLU and from extra-curricular experiences I have had while in school. I then contemplated how these artifacts related to the SOAC ILOs and the PLU mission statement and in what ways they demonstrated the competency I have gained in those areas. A selection of these artifacts is presented in this portfolio to show my development throughout my time at PLU.

This digital portfolio will progress through the five SOAC ILOs – critical and reflective thinking, valuing, expression, interaction, multiple frameworks – and the PLU mission statement in this order. I will provide and explain the significance of artifacts that demonstrate the competence I have gained in each of these categories during my time at PLU.